The crew will join Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers, for a four-month mission.

Mission 30, Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers, arrived on the ISS on 23 December 2012 and will return home on 1 July.

Padalka is making his third visit to the station, fourth long-duration spaceflight and his third aboard the station. He was previously station commander for Expedition 9 in 2004 and Expedition 19/20 in 2009.